Rivet feeding mechanism



Jan. 9, 1940. A. E. RYLANDER RIVET FEEDING MECHANISM Filed March a, 19:59 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. wea/ 1f ,6; fl/VDEE ATTORNEY.

. INVENTOR. flA/DZEM f firm/106,6 BY

A; W ATTORNEY.

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 A. E. RYLANDER RIVET FEEDING'MECHANISM Flled March 8 1939 Jan. 9, 1940.

Jan. 9, 1940. A. E. RYLANDER RIVET FEEDING MECHANISM Filed March 8, 1939 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR fiwpen firm/vase A TTORNEY.

Patented Jan. 9, 1940 UNITED STATES "P -TEN oi-Fica.

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- Application mm a. 1m.'ssralu.. seem 'lClainm. (cane-e) This invention relates to. rivet feeding mechanisms and an important object of the invention is to provide a feed to several chutes from a single hopper without the possibility of the arti- 5 cle's crowding or jamming the mechanism.

Another important object of the invention is to provide a mechanism of the above character which feeds the rivets to a multiplicity of points to be simultaneously inserted into a work piece, to prior to being headed.-

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part II of the application and wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the several views,

Fig. 1 is afront elevation of a press with the feeding mechanism applied thereto, go Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of one form of automatic gate for the rivet chute, Fig. 4 is a similar view showing the same in another operative position,

Fig. 5 is a similar view of a modified form of the automatic gate,

Fig. 6 is a similar view showing the latter in another position,

Fig. '7 is an enlarged perspective view of an automatic cutoff for feeding one rivet at a time,

Fig. 8 is a similar view showing another operative position of the latter,

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of the rivet inserting finger in raised position, 5 Fig. 10 is an enlarged transverse section of the same,

Fig. 11 is a longitudinal section through the rivet inserting finger in a partially projected position, and

Fig. 12 is a similar view showing the finger in completely lowered position ejecting the rivet andinserting it into the work piece.

Reference to the drawings will show a press I, provided with the usual table or bed 2 upon which a die 3 with suitable work centering devices is positioned. Mounted above the bed is a ram actuating mechanism, here illustrated as an air or hydraulic cylinder 4, containing a piston for reciprocating a plunger head 5, from which depends a pair of spaced rivet inserting plungers 6. These plungers are mounted in the head so as to yield longitudinally after the exertion of the predetermined force. I The head 5 with the plungers 8 is lowered each time the foot control valve 1 is dees pressed to admit fluid medium under pressure fromtheplpe-ltoa'controlvaiveflandthmceto theupperendofcylinderlthroushilbell. As theheadofthepressdescendaatripllcarried thereby, engages a trip valve ll toreverae the control valve and to permit the medium. under 5 pressure to pass throughconduit ll intothelower'endofthecylinderlwhiietheupperendisexhausting back through pipe ll,throughthecontrol valveand back to the source of'supplv. In

this manner, the pllmgerl willbe loweredtothe u desired extent and automatically returnedjto raised'position each time the foot valve I inoperated.

Biidably molmted upon the lower end ofeach plunger! is arivet chamber ll havingahey-hole 1 shaped opening Ii in its outer side to admit a rivet into the chamber, in head-up position that it will slide lo s tudinally down to the bottom thereof. Rivet engaging fingers II are pivoted'as at II at their'upperendstotherivetm chamber and arenormally urged by flat springs i9 toward one another to frictionally 8118889 the shank of the rivet when it is initially forced downwardly therebetween by the pltmger O as the latter moves toward its podtion. :5

The rivet chamber I4 is made in two halves 2| and II, yieldingly urged together by screw held springs 22, as best seen in Fig. 10, so as to frictionally and slidably engage the plimger. The upper end of the rivet chamber is reduced as at a 23 to extendthrough an opening 2 in an abutment plate 25 secured to the press. This reduction in the size of the upper end of the rivet chamber provides a lower shoulder 26 which is adapted to engage the abutment plate 2' to stop g the upward movement of the chamber as the plunger 6 moves' it upwardly on the upstroke of. the plunger, to a positionto receive another rivet, after which the plunger 8 continues to move further upwardly independently of the rivet cham- Q her. The upper end of each rivet chamber above the abutment plate 25 is externally threaded as at 21 to receive a pair'of nuts 28 whichserve as an upper abutment to stop downward'movement of the-rivet chamber. at a point in the downstroke 'of theplunger where the fingers ,l'l are spaced just slightly above the work piece I! having a hole to receive the lower end of the shank of the rivet. Asthe plunger 3 moves further downwardly'independently of the rivet chamber, g.

the rivet is ejected from. between thespring fingers l1 and is forced through the aperture in the workpiece. This movement of the rivet downwardly through the work, forces a spring pressed knock-out II downwardly. as theplunger inserts the rivet until its head engages the work piece, after which this knock-out raises the piece with the rivets therein, upon the upstroke of the plungers.

To automatically feed the rivets to two or more rivet inserting fingers, a rotary motor driven hopper 33 is mounted upon the top of the press to continually feed the rivets into a downwardly inclined chute 34 which is provided with a longitudinally slotted bottom for the rivets to hang with their shanks depending through the slot to automatically slide down the same by gravity. The lower end of this chute is provided with an arcuate fork 35 to provide a pair of branch chutes 36 and 37, which first diverge downwardly and then extend parallel as at 38 for a distance where they begin to be turned about their axes as their lower ends are inclined inwardly through approximately 45 degrees in inwardly converging relationship to slide the two rivets by gravity into the key-hole slots 15 in the rivet chambers H.

In order to feed the rivets, one by one, into each branch chute 36 and 31 upon each complete reciprocation of the press, an oscillatable gate valve or disc 40 is mounted upon an axis 4i transverse to the plane of the fork 35 directly below the slot in the main chute 34. A crank 42 is connected to the disc 40 and has its free end pivotally connected as at 43 to a link or rod 44 having its lower end connected to the head of the press, so that reciprocations of the head will oscillate the gate valve from side to side. In Figs. 1, 5 and 6, the disc 40 is shown provided with a radially extending land 45 providing opposed shoulders 46 and 4'! operating within the fork of the chute to alternately engage the shanks of the rivets presented by the main chute 34 in order to pass one, first to the branch 3'! on the downstroke of the press, and then one to the right hand branch chute 36, upon the upstroke of the press.

In Figs. 3 and 4, a modified form of gate valve is shown which does not employ the shouldered land 45, but is in the form of a plain circular disc 40 as shown, the periphery of which, operates within the fork 35 and is spaced from the upper edge of the slot for the rivets, a distance equal to the diameter of the rivet shank. Thus, as the disc 40 is oscillated by the press, one rivet from the main chute 34 is rolled, first to the left, into branch chute 31, and then, one to the right hand branch chue 36, due to the oscillation of the disc rolling across the shanks of the rivets and causing each to be rolled into its respective branch chute. In both modifications, the main chute 34 is continuously inclined in a single plane from the hopper on through the gate valve 40. This provides for the rivets sliding smoothly from the hopper into the gate valve, without any severe vertical drop or change of inclination of the chute. Moreover, this inclination of the chute 34 and that of the feeding ends 39, removes the weight of a stack of rivets from the gate valve 46 and the feeding mechanisms for the rivet inserting fingers, to be presently described, so as to prevent bunching or jamming of the rivets in the chutes or feeding devices.

In order to feed rivets to more than two points in any mechanism, one or both branch chutes 36 and 31 may be equipped, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, with a plurality of auxiliary chutes or slides. In the present example, a pair of auxiliary chutes 48 and 49 are provided to receive rivets alternately from the branch 36 and are spaced equi-distantly therefrom. Likewise, a pair of auxiliary chutes 58 and 5| are provided for receiving rivets alternately from chute 81 and are also spaced equi-distantly therefrom, as illustrated. To alternately feed one rivet at a time from the chutes 36 and 37 to its respective pair of auxiliary chutes just described, a horizontally reciprocable slide or gate 52 is interposed transversely between the chutes 36 and 3'! and their respective auxiliary chutes. This gate slide 52 may be reciprocated from any suitable mechanism and is adapted to be moved to the left of the figures as the gate valve 48 oscillates clockwise and to move to the right of the figures as the gate valve 48 moves counter-clockwise, although the direction of movement of the parts may be reversed if desired so that the slide 52 is moved to the right of the figures as the gate 40 oscillates counterclockwise and to the left of the figure as the gate 46 oscillates clockwise. The slide 52 is provided with a vertical slot 53 extending. inwardly from one longitudinal edge to receive the shank of a rivet l6 horizontally with the head of the rivet projecting laterally from said edge and is adapted to be registered with the chute 48 when the slide 52 is disposed at the limit of movement to the right of the figure so as to deposit the rivet from slot 53 into the chute 58. When the slide 52 is arranged at the limit of its movement to the right of the figure, a second similar slot 54 is registered with the chute 36 so as to similarly receive a rivet from this chute and slide it to the left of the figure across a table 55 and deposit it in th chute 49 when the slide 52 reaches the limit of its movement to the left of the figure. While performing this function, the slot 53 is then registered with chute 36 to receive a rivet therefrom and move it across the table 55 as the slide 52 moves to the right of the figure. Thus, the slide operates to automatically feed rivets alternately from chute 36 to the auxiliary chutes 48, and 49 during reciprocation of the slide 52.

The other end of the slide 52 is provided with a slot 56 similar to slot 53 to alternately register chutes 31 and 50 while a second similar slot 51 is adapted to alternately register chutes 37 and 5! to alternately feed rivets to the auxiliary chutes 56 and 5| during reciprocations of the slide 52. Thus, the two auxiliary chutes 48 and 50 are simultaneously fed with rivets at one limit of movement of the slide 52, while the auxiliary chutes 49 and 5! are simultaneously fed with rivets as the slide 52 reaches the limit of its movement to the left of the figure. It will be obvious that the auxiliary slides 48 to 51 inclusive may be provided with slides similar to 52 in order to feed more than four auxiliary chutes and the number of such chutes may be increased or diminished with this mechanism as occasion demands.

In the present press set-up, only two rivet setting fingers I1 are illustrated, and in order to automatically feed the rivets, one at a time, to each finger from the lower end 39 of both chutes 36 and 31, a gate mechanism 56 is mounted upon the bed 2 of the press to permit one rivet at a time to pass from the lower end 39 of each chute into the rivet receiving chamber l4 of each plunger. As both gate mechanisms 58 are alike, a description of one will sufiice for both.

Each valve mechanism 58 comprises a casting bolted to the bed of the press and is provided with a face 59 flush with the upper face of each branch chute 39.

A vertical groove or way 60 is cut through the inclined face 59 to a depth suiiicient to receive the shank of the rivet ll fed by gravity by the lower end 30 of the branch chute with the undersides of the rivet heads sliding upon the inclined face 39 and the shank of the rivet depending vertically in the groove 60. A similar groove ii is cut in the lower portion of the face and is offset from the groove 60 to have rivets fed, one at,

a time, from the groove ill by a mechanism to be presently described. The lower end of each block 58 is provided with a pair of guiding fingers 62 which lead the rivets into the keyhole slot of the rivet receiving chamber of the adjacent plunger 6.

To feed the rivets, one by one, from groove 60 into the offset groove 6|, a reciprocatory slide 63 is slidably mounted in a transverse groove 64 which intersects the aforesaid grooves transversely. This slide 63 is provided with a vertical slot 65 to admit the shank of the lowermost rivet in groove 60 and to move this rivet to the right of Fig. 7 until grooves SI and 65 align and the rivet slides by gravity through the groove I, between the guide fingers 62 and into the keyhole slot of the rivet receiving chamber of the plunger. The slide 63 is provided with a stop 88 which abuts one side of the casting 58 when the groove 65 registers with the upper groove 60, and a second stop collar 61 which abuts with the opposite side of the casting 58 when the groove 85 registers with the lower groove 8L.

This slide 63 is reciprocated, near the ends of the limits of the movement of the plunger 6, so that one rivet is permitted to pass through the groove GI and into the keyhole slot of the rivet receiving chamber H as the latter reach the limit of their upstroke, while upon downstroke of the plungers and rivet receiving chambers, the slide 63 is moved to register its groove 65 with the upper groove 60 in the casting 58. The mechanism provided for operating the slide 63 in step with the reciprocations of the press plungers, comprises a shaft Ill iournaled across the bed of the press in suitable bearings to control both rivet feeding mechanisms simultaneously. A fiat spring steel arm H is secured to the shaft at each end and is forked at its lower end to straddle an extension of each slide valve 63. This shaft II is oscillated by a crank arm 12 having an opening It to slidably receive an operating rod I4 which is connected at its upper end to the head 5 of the press and is provided at its lower end with a pair of spaced abutments 15 for rocking the arm 12 near the ends of the reciprocations of the plungers 6.

It will be understood that various changes in the construction and relation of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination of a single hopper to feed rivets to a multiplicity of chutes, a single main chute automatically fed from the hopper and having a pair of branch chutes diverging therefrom, means for alternatelyfeeding the rivets, one at a time, to the branch chutes, a plurality of auxiliary chutes for one of the branch chutes, and means operated in conjunction with the aforesaid means for feeding the auxiliary chutes from the one branch.

2. The combination of a single hopper to feed rivets to a multiplicity of chutes, a single main chute automatically fed from the hopper and having a pair of branch chutes diverging therefrom, means for alternately feeding the rivets, one at a time, to the branch chutes, a pair of auxiliary chutes for each one of the branch chutes, and .a single reciprocatory slide having two pairs of rivet receiving pockets for each branch chute for alternately feeding rivets to the two auxiliary chutes of each branch chute.

3. The combination of a single hopper to feed a multiplicity of chutes, a single chute automatically fed from the hopper and having an arcuate fork with a pair of substantially vertical branches, an oscillatable disc mounted on an axis concentric with the axis of the fork and means for oscilliating the disc to alternately feed the rivets one at a time, to the vertical branches.

4; The combination of a single hopper to feed the multiplicity of chutes, a single slotted chute automatically fed from the 'hopper and having an arcuate fork with a pair of substantially vertical slotted branches, an oscillatable disc mounted on an axis concentric with the arc of the fork and with its periphery spaced from the slots in the branches and chute to define a passage of substantially the same width as the diameter of the shank of the rivets fed therethrough, wherefore the rivets fall into the rounded fork and the disc rolls the articles over the rounded fork until they fall into the branches alternately.

5. The combination of a single hopper to feed a multiplicity of chutes, a single chute automatically fed from the hopper and having an arcuate fork with a pair of substantially vertical branches, an oscillatable disc mounted on an axis concentric with the arc of the fork with its periphery spaced from the branches and chute to define a passage of the same width as the shank of the rivets fed therethrough, wherefore the rivets fall into the rounded fork and the disc rolls the rivets over the rounded fork until they fall into the branches alternately, a reciprocable slide valve traversing at least one branch and having a pair of pockets to alternately align with each branch, and a pair of chutes connected to each slide valve to be alternately fed with rivets from each branch.

6. The combination with a press having a reciprocable ram, of a single hopper to feed rivets to a multiplicity of chutes, a single main chute automatically fed from the hopper and having a pair of branch chutes diverging therefrom on opposite sides of the press, said branch chutes being arranged in substantially parallel relation and twisted through substantially degrees with their lower ends angularly disposed in inwardly converging relation, a gate valve associated with the lower end of each branch chute and operated by the press, and a second gate valve associated with the main chute and operated by the press to alternately deliver one rivet at a time to each of the branch chutes near the end of the limits of movement of the press ram.

- 7. An automatic rivet sticker comprising a press having a bed and a vertically reciprocable head, a pair of plungers carried thereby and having rivet grasping fingers to simultaneously hold a pair of rivets while they are being inserted into the work piece, a single rotary hopper, a single chute automatically fed from the hopper and having a fork with a pair of branches extending to terminate infeeding chutes adjacent the fingers to gravitationally feed rivets thereto, an oscillatable gate disc mounted in said fork to brush one rivet at a time into each branch chute. a movable gate in each feeding chute, and means connecting the press head with said gates to automatically operate the same. v

ANDREW E. RYLANDIR. 

